Brees: Offense reached its preseason goals

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 10:00 AMAug 29, 2013 at 10:33 AM

METAIRIE — New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a half-glass full kind of guy.

Bradley HandwergerWWLTV.com Sports Reporter

METAIRIE — New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a half-glass full kind of guy.So when asked how he felt with his preseason finished — Brees won't play tonight against Miami in the exhibition finale — New Orleans' Mr. Everything QB said the Saints got what they wanted from this 4 ½ week endeavor."I feel like we got accomplished what we set out to accomplish which was to get a little better each time, get the number of snaps that we felt like we needed, spread the ball around, operate efficiently and effectively with good tempo and rhythm, all those things," Brees said.As cliché as that certainly sounds, there's truth to it.The Saints opened preseason with a listless 17-13 win over Kansas City. The offense went punts, field goal, punt, turnover on downs and punt before halftime. They had just 163 total yards and were 2 of 7 on third down.A week later, it was better. Field goal, touchdown, touchdown, field goal and field goal were the results of New Orleans' first five drives.That they made that transition in such a short amount of time without having game plans at their disposal shows Brees' point.And other than Joe Morgan, the Saints' receiver who was lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, New Orleans' offense emerged relatively healthy. Even more, they've found that two in-house draft picks — Nick Toon and Kenny Stills — could deliver on their promise."The goal is obviously is healthy as you can going into Week 1 and also with as much confidence as you feel you can have," Brees said. "I feel like we have felt that (confidence) as we are going along."There's a good reason for that. New Orleans, starters and backups, rank third in the NFL in yards per game, first in sacks allowed per pass attempt and fourth in average time of possession.In other words, the Saints' offense is on pace to be the Saints' offense as it has been under Sean Payton.